MLB Baseball: Tuesday, May 15, 2018 at 8:15 pm (Kauffman Stadium)

() () vs. I Kennedy (1-4) (4.61)

TV: FSKC, SUN

The Tampa Bay Rays and Kansas City Royals meet Tuesday in MLB action at Kauffman Stadium.

The Tampa Bay Rays could use another victory here after losing six of their last eight games. The Rays have scored 13 runs in their last three games and three or less runs in 10 of their last 14 games. The Tampa Bay Rays have lost eight of their last nine games when scoring four or less runs. C.J. Cron leads the Rays with 42 hits and 23 RBI while Matt Duffy and Mallex Smith have combined for 72 hits and 22 RBI. Anthony Banda gets the ball, and he was 2-3 with a 5.96 ERA and 25 strikeouts last season. This will be Banda’s second career game against the Royals.

The Kansas City Royals could also use a win here after losing five of their last six games. The Royals have allowed 19 runs in their last three games and five or more runs in six of their last seven games. The Kansas City Royals have lost seven of their last 11 games when allowing more than two runs. Offensively, Mike Moustakas leads the Royals with 48 hits and 29 RBI while Whit Merrifield and Jon Jay have combined for 90 hits and 22 RBI. Ian Kennedy gets the ball, and he is 1-4 with a 4.61 ERA and 39 strikeouts this season. Kennedy is 1-5 with a 5.76 ERA and 45 strikeouts in his career against the Rays.

The Rays are 2-5 in their last 7 road games, 1-6 in their last 7 Tuesday games and 2-6 in their last 8 overall. The Royals are 3-7 in their last 10 during game 2 of a series, 2-8 in their last 10 vs. American League East and 1-4 in Kennedys last 5 Tuesday starts. The Rays are 6-20 in the last 26 meetings in Kansas City, 9-25 in the last 34 meetings and the over is 9-2 in the last 11 meetings in Kansas City.

Again, I'm not trying to pick which pile of crap smells better, and it doesn't help that Banda has yet to pitch this season and Kennedy is coming off a game in which he allowed nine runs in four innings. There are simply better options on the board. But if forced to pick, I'd side with the Royals. I'm not picking a guy who has yet to pitch this season and wasn't good last year when he was on the mound. The Rays have also won back-to-back games just once since April 29.

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